The Beyer MCE81 condenser mic is their latest addition to a long line of sturdy, high quality studio and stage microphones of both the dynamic and condenser variety. Its predecessors include the M700 (dynamic) and MCE80 (condenser) which you may have read about in the Feb '87 edition of Sound On Sound.
Appearance-wise, the MCE81 is sleek and similar to the M700, though most like the MCE80 sensitivity-wise - my immediate 'in the hand' impression was that the mic felt solid and sturdy with good balance.
I think it's worth noting precisely what Beyer had in mind when designing the MCE81, after all, there are many possible uses for a mic - from PA, through location recording, to general and specific use in the studio. According to its spec sheet, Beyer see the MCE81 as a "studio quality unidirectional condenser for high quality sound reinforcement and vocal applications". Why 'studio quality', you might ask? Well, possibly the simplest answer is that condenser mics dominate the professional recording scene. The sensitivity of condenser mics compares very favourably with dynamic mics, basically because they respond by giving a higher electrical output for a given sound pressure level. Since this is the case, condenser mics produce a higher ratio of signal-to-noise than dynamic mics and the less the source signal is affected by the mic's inherent noise, obviously, the more accurate the reproduction of that source signal.